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The bomber who died in the suicide attack on the Australian embassy appears to be part of a new group of radical Muslim cells operating in West Java, Indonesia's police chief announced yesterday.

General Da'i Bachtiar said DNA testing had confirmed a 30-year- old casual labourer, Heri Kurniawan, also known as Heri Golun, was in the truck carrying the bomb. He said he was waiting for the results of two more DNA tests to determine if there was another person in the vehicle.

Suspected terrorists had recently given police information about previously unknown cells operating in areas of West Java called KW7 and KW9 - information which police believe suggests terrorists have a range of networks to tap into.

At a press conference to announce the identity of the suicide bomber, Gen Bachtiar said the organisers of the Bali and Marriott Hotel bombings had recruited people mainly from Central and East Java. But for the Australian embassy bombing, he said, "they recruited another group, the West Java group".

"This means these people have a bigger network with other groups."

He said some of those arrested over the embassy bombing had confessed to being members of an old Islamic militant group called Indonesian Islamic State or NII. Police were not yet certain if NII had been revived and if so how big it had become.

Police also revealed Kurniawan's wife, Satem binti Leman, was heavily pregnant when her husband exploded the bomb that killed him and at least nine others.

Head of the embassy investigation, General Suyitno Landung, revealed Kurniawan's suicide letter to his wife asked for her forgiveness, for her permission to be a martyr and for her to pay an outstanding debt.

Now she has followed his one other request in the letter, naming their son born last week Rachmat Jundullah or God's warrior.

In the tiny village where he spent most of his life, friends, relatives and former teachers had watched for years as Kurniawan's anger swelled at what he regarded as the West's mistreatment of Muslims.

Ustad (Islamic teacher) Amin Abu Salman had taught Kurniawan and two others, Nanang and Apuy, in the little mosque in his village Cigarun. But around three years ago two men, Akdam and Harun, came from Banten and encouraged the young men to move away.

They didn't travel far, only 400 metres, where they built a little hut beside a disused railway line at Gunung Batu where they spent their days and nights discussing the treatment of Muslims and what could be done.

"They started to grow concerned about what was happening in the Muslim world," Mr Salman recalled.

"They said Muslims were being marginalised and were suffering and they asked us to help fight for Muslims."

Kurniawan sometimes used to wander through the rice fields, trying to convince the young men to join his struggle and wage jihad. Slowly their group expanded to seven young men as well as their two teachers.

Kurniawan was delighted after the Bali bombings.

"When I said there were also Muslims who died and were injured there, he said, 'It's their own fault. Why, as Muslims, did they go to the bar'?"

Seven months ago, the seven villagers and two teachers who had been living at their little hut disappeared. One local said it was because the police had begun to watch them.

Since then Indonesian police have arrested three of the villagers but the other three and their two teachers remain on the run.